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Strength of memory encoding affects physiological responses in the Guilty Actions Test.
Matthias Gamer1, Desiree Kosiol, Gerhard Vossel
1Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, Bldg W34, D-20246 Hamburg, Germany. m.gamer@uke.uni-hamburg.de
Biological Psychology
|November 26, 2009
Summary
The Guilty Actions Test (GAT) effectively detects concealed memories. Its accuracy for culprits remains stable over time, while false positives for informed innocents decrease, showing memory
Area of Science:
- Forensic psychophysiology
- Cognitive psychology
Background:
- The Guilty Actions Test (GAT) is a validated forensic technique for detecting concealed memories.
- GAT's application faces challenges due to potential memory impairment in culprits and information leakage to innocent individuals.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of time delays on GAT accuracy for both culprits and informed innocents.
- To assess how memory forgetting and information leakage affect GAT results.
Main Methods:
- A mock crime scenario was used to compare culprits and informed innocents.
- The time interval between the mock crime and the GAT administration was varied.
- Electrodermal, respiratory, and heart rate measures were analyzed.
Main Results:
- Culprits showed forgetting primarily of peripheral crime details after two weeks.
- Informed innocents exhibited similar forgetting across all crime details over time.
- GAT validity remained stable for culprits, while false positive rates decreased for informed innocents as time progressed.
Conclusions:
- Memory encoding and consolidation processes significantly influence physiological responses during the GAT.
- Temporal factors impact the reliability of GAT results differently for actual culprits versus informed innocents.
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